When Gods Sleep
by Best Bayne OCE
Summary: After having killed his own father and returned to Earth for a brief attempt at redemption, Star-Lord leaves Earth, the same way he arrived, except slightly more up to date. Then Gamora disappears to help kill her own father, and Peter is left with a Kleptomaniac Rocket, an honest Drax, a stubborn Groot and the the naive escapee Mantis, to take care of all by himself.


**So I'm 22 and I watched Guardians of the Galaxy 2 with a couple of friends at night in a cinema after a few beers (one beer) and decided to write an epic story about what happens afterwards, or at least try, which is why barely anything has happened in this chapter. And this is the beginning of that, so I hope you like it! And also that you tell me how I can improve on my writing because I'm making this stuff up as i go along :)**

 **P.S I'd just like to thank Mangamie on Reddit for the artwork. Mantis is in this story a lot too, even if ffnet refuses to recognise her as a character.**

On the nameless planet, (it was part of the Hive, or at least she thought it was, the Hive seemed to spread outwards forever and ever), Sarilla waited. Her plan was simple. One minute to break into the service tunnel, 10 minutes to get the device, 10 minutes to get out. If "get the device" sounded incredibly simple, that's because it was, so incredibly simple in fact she had to make the time limit herself. She didn't often do such things, like time limits. It had always been do or die up to this point.

 _11:59_

 _Time to go._

The service tunnel entrance was a piece of metal with tiny holes in it, which Sarilla quickly dispatched by blasting it at full power. Nobody would notice it was missing until she was long gone. The Hive might not notice it at all, but that was likely wishful thinking. What sort of moron would break into a civilian building like this using this service tunnel? She was, what, 4 clicks above the surface of the ground? And about 6 clicks below the roof of the building, give or take.

"Rike, anything I should know before I get in the tunnel?"

" _Are you asking that because you're already in the tunnel, or about to get in?"_

"I'm already in the tunnel, of course."

" _Well I'll skip the reasons you could already be dead then. Mind the drop!"_

If Rike had waited any longer to say that she would have been in freefall and probably dead. As it was, she had her chest precariously dangling over the edge of a steep drop and her toned arms were the only reason she hadn't fallen down already.

"Tack Rike! You don't think that was a little close?!"

" _I do my best. Now that's a steep drop you've got ahead of you but the good news is there's a laser field at the bottom so at least you know when to brake properly."_

"Bregger. Understood. Rappelling in 3, 2, 1…."

 _Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzt._

At a snail's pace, she expertly manipulated her thrusters to bring her to the bottom of the shaft. It was difficult tiring work, but she had made it. And there would be a sweet reward for her efforts.

"I'm at the bottom of the tunnel Rike. You sure these thrusters will take me? I don't like the look of that laser grid down there…"

" _From a technical perspective they're rated to carry things a lot heavier than you. Also, I checked. You're absolutely safe."_

Sarilla was already flying the remarkably small thrusters through the large, patchwork laser grids as he spoke.

"Well it certainly seems to be working!"

A brief silence, followed by some radio static. The two hired mercenaries had what could be described as a fairly dodgy connection. And that was emotional as well as physical. But hey, at least it meant they both had a job. Finding reliable partners was a lot like finding realistic dating prospects on this side of the galaxy that didn't just want to rip you off, that being close to impossible.

 _"Okay Sari, listen. You see those metal doors?"_

There were two doors several metres to her left but they weren't going to budge, and also the laser grid looked like it might take off some of her limbs if she got too close to it.

"The solid security doors protected by the incredibly fine grid of lasers? You've hacked them right?"

 _"Well I tried to. But in the one hand, it looked hard, and on the other hand I couldn't have you shooting anyone Stealth is very important remember?"_

"Then, how am I _supposed_ to get out?"

Rike was such a lazy good for nothing smartass sometimes. She was lucky he didn't get her into more ridiculously dangerous situations. Like that time they raided a high security bank, or that time they raided the zoo, or that other time...

 _"The same way you came in, obviously?"_

Rike stopped herself from getting too distracted or angry completely by accident.

"That would generally be good advice if I _wasn't supposed to be stealing something."_

 _"Yes, from what I recall an orthopteral recipositor. Or in slightly easier terms for us to understand, twisted headphones with triangles on the end of them. You in the offices yet?"_

"I'm exactly where they said I should be."

Sarilla looked around herself, still slightly angry at Rike. Anger in these sorts of situations could be lifesaving. What a communications officer he was turning out to be. At least she appeared to be in the correct location, and on top of that, there was absolutely nothing in her way. And that meant literally nothing. The laboratory she was in was absolutely spotless. She felt slightly dirty being in the room even with her thruster pack turned off.

"Rike, the place is absolutely spotless. We have to be looking for something tiny. Really really small."

 _"You have five minutes."_

She would have been relieved it was so small it made her getaway easier of not for the time limit that her and Rike kept placing on _every single mission for no reason._ Desperately she grabbed at the cupboard under the laboratory desk and pulled it open.

Tools and notes, all meticulously organised.

"They have tools and notes under the benches. Sound like what we are looking for?"

 _"Not a chance. We're looking for something incredibly obscure. I think this company might have invented it. "_

"Okay….so….maybe they would keep it in a safe?. I'm searching for one now."

Eyes flickering, she scanned the room thoroughly in a matter of seconds. Then her devices started whirring too. Nothing. But if she focused her infrared on a slight gap in the floor tiles…

"Rike, I think I found a safe, it's underneath the floor. Checking now..."

Exctiedly she grabbed the tile, which turned out to be a several lump of stone and hoisted it out of position.

"And you're not going to believe the age of the safe they've got under the floor here. It's a tiny load of shit."

Rike sniggered into the microphone for a few seconds then burst out with a deep reverberating alien laugh.

 _"Well that's a relief, isn't it, learning that I'm right again. You're hacking it?"_

"76% done."

Beep.

"Rike..."

 _"Yea? What?"_

"Someone forgot to turn off their pet robot."

"You cannot be serious."

There was a tiny robot, about the size of her hand darting all over the damn place.

" _You have to get rid of it Sarilla. Obliterate the thing. Now."_

"But it's so cuuuuute..."

 _"IF THAT THING TURNS ON THE AI FOR THIS OFFICE I SWEAR TO GOD I'M..."_

Somewhere in the near rooms a red light flickered into life. Sarilla saw it almost immediately. Her chances weren't good but she had lived her entire life without giving up once, and plus, Rike was furious and she wanted to see the stress lines and the alcohol he would have prepared after this. She switched on her stealth package as a cone of red light started zooming in her general direction and sprinted towards her escape route.

"HAHAA, I WIN! I WIN AGAIN! _YOOOUUUU_ , well you aren't quite as good as me. "

Rocket was beating Drax in a round of FIFA whatever year it was this time, and Peter was annoyed just by being in the radius of hearing him gloat. He could do this for hours, and the worst part was Drax wasn't actually trying. Also he might have gotten mad because Rocket was appearing to be better than him at video games, but he couldn't judge, because they weren't playing the same ones. Because like a true video gamer, Peter Quill was about, and had started, twenty years behind Rocket, who had actually had the nerve to ask him what Earth year it was, subtracted two from that, and refused to play a video game released any earlier. There were plenty of classics on that disc tooo! Like Pac-man. Actually, just Pac-man. That was the only classic Peter was going to acknowledge.

"Oh stop mouthing off Rocket, that was the most one sided display of FIFA I have ever seen and I have never even seen a game of football."

"What have I told you about interrupting my moments of glory. Star-Lord? And besides what you are saying makes absolutely no sense."

Gamora cut in from the other side of the spacecraft, which was quite literally drifting idly throughout space and had been doing so for a long while but that wasn't actually just Peter's fault. It was also Rockets. Of course Gamora wasn't impressed with this video game thing for many reasons, the most important one being maturity, and the others being brought up constantly as well. Like the whole " _video games are taking up 90% of the hard drive_ " thing.

"He's right. If you haven't ever seen the game how do you-"

"I know you're supposed to kick the ball! Drax didn't even try! He just went at your players and tripped them over all game, then complained when they got back up again!"

Drax was finding FIFA almost as hilarious as Punch-Out. Punch Out he just did not stop laughing,

"These human players are pathetic! They fall over and are rewarded! I love it!"

It could probably be said violence was one of Drax's pursuits in a video game. No surprises there. Also not a surprise, Drax not understanding what fairness was.

"I am Groot!"

Rocket was the only way anyone could understand Groot, still. Mostly because he was a teenager who would now cram entire phrases into 3 words.

"What did he say?"

"He thinks he's better than both of us put together, but he's not- Hey!"

Mantis, fortunately immune to all of this,was sitting in the back half of the ship, staring out the window and looking at all the other bizarre ships rocketing past them. The ships had originally been a distraction from the stars, which had been a distraction from her work, which was to categorise a lot more emotions than she had actually thought could exist. Jealousy, for instance. Fear took different forms. It was all very difficult to work out properly and because nobody could really help her. So she kept reading her *cough* romantic novels like she was apparently supposed to. Then the giant flashing white light entered her vision. It was weird, because it wasn't moving very fast. It would go up to ships, stop, then flash again, and repeat. The ships all seemed to find this annoying because they would just scream off at high speeds. So it was harmless, surely. Right?

Because it was heading straight at them.

Probably time to talk to Gamora about it.

Balancing her way down the ship's centre she encountered Gamora and Peter talking excitedly about something.

"What do you think Groot said this time?"

"Beats me. I don't think Rocket likes being treated with affection though."

"Groot knows that. Thats why he does it, and thats why Rocket puts up with it happening so often."

Meanwhile Mantis was trying to get Gamora's attention by sticking her head around in between the two of them.

"Gamora."

"Maybe i should try it then."

"Peter did you not hear what i just-"

"Gamora!"

In order to prove her desperation, she kicked something. That got Star-Lords attention almost immediately.

"Mantis! Did you hurt yourself?! What happened!?"

"Peter, she _literally_ just kicked that to get your attention."

"There's A SHIP! With a flashing LIGHT! heading straight FOR US!"

Star-Lord (she would never dare to call him Peter), looked at Gamora, who looked back at him.

It was the sort of interaction that indicated neither of them really wanted to take responsibility for telling her what the ship was, but neither of them were actually, well _worried_ about it.

Eventually Star-lord decided to explain what was going on.

"It's just a police vessel."

Gamora looked at him with a confused expression on her face.

"That's what I call the GE. The police. They...enforce the law. They make sure everybody is doing the right thing."

"That sounded very strange.

"So what do they want with us? We are doing the right thing...right?"

"Right. YOU HEAR THAT ROCKET! WE ARE ACTUALLY DOING THE RIGHT THING!"

No answer. Mantis wondered if whether everyone hadn't stood around with their ears covered they would have heard things better. But then Peter would have probably damaged their ears. In the process of yelling.

Beep.

 _Hey Guys_

 _It's me, Rocket, here. Now listen closely because I'm going to have to make my sentences short cos I'm not sure how much air i got in here._

 _Now you're probably wondering why the second the police arrive I disappear but the truth is I'm not running, I just fell out of the ship._

 _Lucky I was wearing my space gear, huh?_

 _Well tis your lucky day because i fell out with some stuff that the police would probably love to see on the ship. At least i think i have all of it with me. Thats where you come in!_

 _Check my pile of stuff okay? Hide that shit. It's important._

 _And oh yeah can you pick me up? That wouold be reaaal nice._

 _Thanks guys._

 _Love ya. Im probably going to start screaming because the thrusters will kick in any second._

 _Rocket out!_


End file.
